Press release

Russia defeats India and qualifies for the second round

Russia is qualified for the second round

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 2, 2011 – Russia became the first team of the Pool C of FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship qualified for the second round of the tournament as the European team achieved their second win at Maracanazinho Gymnasium, in Rio de Janeiro, on Tuesday. The second seeded team in Youth and Junior World ranking defeated India in straight sets (25-23, 25-17 and 25-18).

Russian impressive performance was led by opposite Andrey Kolesnik, who was the top scorer of the match, with 15 points, followed by teammate outside hitter Oleg Tsentalovich, who scored 14. Indian most prominent player was wing spiker Jhon Christopher with 13.

With its second straight win in Rio de Janeiro, Russia has now six points and can only be reached by Egypt or India, teams that will clash this Wednesday and have three points each, in the closing of the group stage. As two teams qualify for the second round, Russia will play Germany in order to assure the top spot of the pool.

In a match with powerful serves and spikes, the Russian took advantage of their sizes to score 4-1. Led by setter Singh Ranjit, who played with speed and accuracy, the Indian followed the European close for the whole set and tied it 18-18 after a mistake of wing spiker Oleg Tsentalovich. In the end, Russian huge block prevailed and assured the European win with a tight score 25-23.

As in the first frame, Russia achieved an early lead in 4-0 following some Indian mistakes in the second set. With opposite Andrey Kolesnik and outside hitter Leonid Shchadilov extremely efficient in the net, the European managed to improve their advantage to 16-10 in the second technical timeout. Russian win was sealed with a spike of Tsentalovich.

The start of the third set was the tightest of the match and the Russian had a single-point advantage in the first technical timeout. With Tsentalovich spiking, the European improved their lead in second TTO (16-13). After a good sequence of Kolesnik in the serve, Russian closed the match with a mistake of the Indian: 25-18.